17-Year-Old Arrested After Threatening British Diver Tom Daley on Twitter

Like many Olympians, British diver Tom Daley uses Twitter to communicate with his fans. On Monday, one of his over 700,000 followers stepped out of line with a vicious taunt after the 18-year-old failed to medal in the 10m synchronized diving event.

“You let your dad down i hope you know that,” read the tweet from the unidentified 17-year-old’s account. What makes this message particularly cruel is that Daley’s father had died last year of brain cancer, and Daley had dedicated his Olympic performance to his memory.

After Daley called attention to the ugly tweet his other followers attacked the 17-year-old, causing him to back away from his words. ”I’m sorry mate i just wanted you to win cause its the olympics I’m just annoyed we didn’t win I’m sorry tom accept my apology,” he tweeted.

However that reconciliatory stance didn’t last long and soon the teen was tweeting even worse things, including threats on Daley’s life. ”I’m going to find you and I’m going to drown you in the pool …” read one of the tweets, which are now unavailable.

In England, you can be arrested for posting “menacing, offensive or indecent” messages on social media. The 17-year-old was detained by police early Tuesday morning for his Twitter outburst and is still in custody.

As for Daley, he is considering taking a break from Twitter as he prepares for the individual diving events next week.